History is firmly stacked in the All Blacks' favour when Ireland travel to Auckland to face the World Cup holders on Saturday.

The Irish have taken on the All Blacks 24 times in total, and all but one of those games ended in defeat. Their one success story came in 1973 when a side featuring legendary figures such as Tom Kiernan, Mike Gibson, Willie John McBride and Fergus Slattery earned themselves a 10-10 draw with the Kiwis at Lansdowne Road.

Since then, the All Blacks have reigned supreme. Ireland gave the New Zealanders an almighty fright in Dunedin in 1992 only to come out on the wrong end of a 24-21 scoreline, and they raced into a 21-7 lead at Lansdowne Road in 2001 before capitulating in the final half hour, allowing the Kiwis to ultimately cruise to a 40-29 victory.

However, while Ireland have often proved competitive, New Zealand have generally won this fixture quite comfortably, with their most recent clash in New Zealand being a case in point.

Ireland managed four tries in New Plymouth earlier this year but still ended up losing by 38 points (66-28).

The last time the pair met, Ireland succombed to a 38-18 loss at home to the All Blacks with Kieran Read grabbing a brace of tries along with other scores from Sam Whitelock and Anthony Boric.